“AWAKEN!” Ray opened his eyes. He was shaking with cold, an iciness that struck far into him; yet he was not lying on a frigid bank of snow. But neither was he on the couch where he had gone to sleep. Bright bars of moonlight, so bright that they dazzled his blinking eyes, lay across the floor before him. And under his bare feet that floor was chill. How had he come into this hall and why did he stand there, one hand resting on a door latch? He had no idea; he felt only complete bewilderment. “Awaken!” Again that low-voiced command came from behind. He turned to face a robed and cowled figure, half in the shadow, half in that shattering moonlight. Now a hand raised to toss back the cowl. Ray confronted the Lady Aiee. She held up her other hand between them, and on the outstretched palm a small ball glowed into life, with a clear white light that for the moment hurt his eyes.
“Come-” Her voice was soft, hardly above a whisper. She turned as if she knew she would be obeyed, moving soundlessly along that moon-striped corridor to a partly open door. Within, she placed her ball of light upon a small tripod, and immediately it sprang to heightened glow, making plain the room with its chairs, its couch, and a table heaped with linen book rolls. “Hither!” She waved him onto a chair by that table, and Ray sat down. Still he shivered with the cold that was not so much a part of the air about him as of some inner chill. The Lady Aiee poured wine into a white flower-shaped cup. And into the liquid she measured drops from a finger-1ong vial. “Drink!” She put the cup into his hands.
Again Ray obeyed. The liquid was warm in his throat, warmer still as he swallowed. As he set aside the emptied cup, she came to him, setting her hands one on each shoulder, drawing his eyes to meet hers.
It was-it was like being whirled away by a force of power one could neither understand nor control. Ray’s feeble, instinctive resistance was swept aside instantly. What she wanted of him, he did not know. But she was willing some answer from him.
At last she broke the contact, the pressure of her fingers leaving his shoulders. And only when it was released was Ray conscious of how determined that hold had been.
“What-?” For the first time he dared a question and then was not quite sure of what he wished to ask. How had he come into that hall? What did she want of him?
“You were walking while asleep,” she told him, “moved by some force not of your waking mind. I had to learn the nature of this force, from whence it came-”
“Walking in my sleep! But-”
“You will say you have not done this before,” the Lady Aiee replied. “That is the truth as you know it. Listen, my son. You have heard that I am of the temple. As such, I have had training. Your own time depends much upon material things, upon knowledge where there is proof that a man can see, hear, taste, or feel. We have other learning, which is not so easily made manifest. It deals with the unseen, the unheard, that which can be sensed obliquely but not held out into the clear light of day.
“But you are not of our blood or of the shaping of this world, and much that lies within you is new to us. You may have powers we do not know, experienced as we are in such matters. Forces we do not understand you can bend to your will. With one of my people, sleepwalking is the sign that they are under control. It can be an evil thing, and the victim must undergo cleansing in the temple-”
“Under control?”
“Moved by the will of another. And this is a thing the sons of the Shadow do.”
Ray shook his head: “I am no Atlantean. I have told the truth.”
The Lady Aiee nodded. “That I know. To one of the temple, the touch of the Shadow is like fire soot on a man’s face. And had you been possessed against your will, then I would have learned it when I `read’ you a moment ago. But something stirred you to walk while one part of your mind was at rest. And that is important to learn. It may be that your own time still has ties upon your spirit and would reclaim you. Or it may be-PP
”What?” It all sounded plausible when she spoke, though his training and background made him question it as having no more validity than the moonlight in the hall had substance.
“That something else strives to use you. When you were taken by the Atlanteans, one of their Red Robes looked upon you, did he not? And those who took you gave to him the possessions you carried when they made you prisoner. Thus he has a mental picture of you and, in his hands, things that you have worn close to your body. From so much a strong quest-mind can build even more. But if that is the case, then you are safe for a while. The draft you have just taken will make you no longer a target for such a searching and invasion. And those in the temple will work for you.”
“But—that’s witchcraft! It doesn’t really happen! Like sticking pins in a doll and imagining your enemy is going to suffer-”
There was such a sharp intake of breath from her that Ray looked up. “What know you of pins and dolls and ill-wishing?”
The warmth had gone out of her voice, leaving it remote and unfriendly.
“Stories of my time in which men of sense do not believe.”
“No? Then they are fools and not men of sense. The old powers must be nearly forgotten. But certain forces do come to the call of an ill-doer. Do not disdain old stories, man out of time, for in them lies a core of fact. There is light and there is dark in the world, and to each certain men incline. If they are willing to pay the price-for each demands a price-then certain knowledge and the power to use it becomes theirs, by degrees of hard learning. Those who have not the learning see a few material objects and believe that is the whole of the matter, not knowing they should cringe and flee from what lies behind those playthings. And in this time those are not playthings. Listen and believe. Scoffing might cost you your life!” Ray was impressed in spite of himself. She believed so implicitly in what she said that he must accept it as a part of this life. “You think that perhaps that Atlantean priest was trying to get at me some way? But why?” “For such reasons as you yourself can list if you think. You are far from stupid. First, you are a new element that has been tossed into an old quarrel at a time of crisis. And such are ever to be treated warily-” “But I’m just one man with no particular skills-” She lost some of her remote withdrawal. “One man before this has upset the balance, turned the tides of history into a new way. What you carry in your mind may be of service to those with whom you choose to stand. That is one reason to lay mind-control upon you-though to try to do so in the very citadel of the Sun shows audacity beyond belief. On the other hand, you are among us, accepted and secure. Thus could you be eyes and ears for them. No”-she must have read his expression aright-“do not be angry. It would be to their advantage to have this so without your conscious knowledge. Perhaps”-she frowned now-“in my concern I did ill. It might have been better to have watched and waited-” “To see where I would have gone?” He caught her thought. “If I try it again-” The Lady Aiee shook her head. “You will not now, at
least for a space of days. Did I not say that the draft cut-you free from influence? But those in the temple will;: know more than I. Now”—once more her hands were’. on his shoulders, this time drawing him to his feet-“do.’ you return to your bed, where you will sleep well, ands in the morning you will awake refreshed with a mind at peace.” Had that meeting been a dream, he wondered, when] he rolled over on the couch and felt the warmth of the; sun strike across his head and shoulders? Yet it clung, to his mind in sharp detail as dreams do not do, almost as if it were a warning. “Ho!” Cho came in. “Rise, brother. Not only food but a fair morning awaits!” They swam in a pool with silver sand at its bottom and an array of fantastic, leering monsters carved about its rim.- Then they dressed in silk tunics. “Your hair grows,” Cho observed. “That is well. free-born warrior does not go cropped as a debt-server.”’ He combed his own long locks and fastened them with; gemmed clips at the nape of his neck. The Lady Aiee was already seated at the table on the terrace above the garden when they joined her. She crumbled small grain cakes in her hands and threw the bounty to a flock of brilliant birds on a stone walk below, laughing at their greediness. To Ray as well as Cho, she offered one of her hands after brushing off the crumbs, and the American tried to copy the Murian’s grace in kissing it. “A fair morning, my sons. But it cannot be spent as one wishes-” “A summons?” Cho asked quickly. “Just so-to the palace. Mayhap afterwards we can show Ray something of the city.” But it seemed to the American that she watched him gravely, as if her thoughts were serious. Did she still think that he might be a threat to all this, an unconscious spy in their midst? Ray lost the-small exultation he had felt since waking. There might be no cloud across the sun, but a ghost of last night’s chill crept up his spine. Cho began a quick coaching of what must be done according to court etiquette, and Ray forced himself to concentrate upon the other’s words. It would seem that the Murian Emperor did not live in such state that semiprivate meetings such as they were now summoned to attend were ordeals, yet there were forms to follow.